Page 5 - Three of Happiness

When she became 18 years of age, she became the Queen of the kingdom, as is the custom of the country. She became increasingly depressed as her birthday approached. On her corona on day (the day she became the Queen), she was so sad that she went walking in the woods, crying so much that she got lost. She wandered and wandered, crying all the while.
Finally, she came to a clearing. In the clearing was this very tree with a door in the middle of it. And there sitting next to the tree was a little man dressed in strange clothes. The Queen walked up to the little man and stopped crying long enough to ask, “Who in the world are you?”
The li le man stood and with a look of mild interest said, “I’m an Elf and who in the world are you?”
“I’m the Queen of this Kingdom,” she said through her tears.
“Well, you certainly look miserable for being the Queen,” the Elf laughed.
“Oh yes, I’m very, very sad and I always have been,” the new Queen replied. The Elf was surprised and asked the Queen, “Why are you so sad?”
“Well...” she began, “When my mother was the Queen people would come out of their houses when we rode by and would cheer and throw owers. When I ride by... people turn their backs or go inside and slam their doors!” The Elf chuckled, “I can certainly understand how that might be upse ng. Is that all?”
“Oh no,” she said. “I’m not very smart as I always did poorly in school. The people of my kingdom have very few schools to a end and they are an ignorant bunch themselves.” The Elf responded that would also be upse ng and asked, “Is that all?”
“Oh no,” she said. ‘’The people of this kingdom are very poor. We have lots of money in the castle but the people don’t have much. We have no businesses and very few jobs. There are times when some people in the kingdom have more than enough food and others of the kingdom are hungry.” The Elf shook his head knowingly and asked, “Is that all?”
“Oh no,” she said. “There is a dragon in the Black Forest that is terrorizing all the people of the area. As the Queen, I should be the one to go and run it off but I’m much, much too afraid.” “That is scary and depressing,” said the Elf.
My new friend, Edgar Eagle, was telling this story with a very serious look on his face but I could see a gleam in his eyes that told me, "This story is about to get more interesting."
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